{"id":35,"date":"2026-03-06T20:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/?page_id=35"},"modified":"2026-03-06T20:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:02:18","slug":"6-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/6-2\/","title":{"rendered":"6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geography Building<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

UBC\u2019s Geography Building lies tucked away in the northwest corner of campus, one of the first buildings constructed here in 1925. Originally the Applied Sciences building, housing the multifaceted disciplines of Geology, Civil Engineering, Zoology, Forestry, and Botany, the building soon moved to support Canada\u2019s first geographic academic division, evolving from the Department of Geology and Mineralogy in 1915.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The building\u2019s architecture reflects early campus construction trends of semi-permanent structures built quickly and inexpensively, on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Musqueam people, at a time when Indigenous presence and knowledge were\u00a0largely excluded\u00a0from university planning and academic life.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the\u00a0building\u2019s\u00a0age is\u00a0evident\u00a0in its limited sustainability features compared to newer campus developments, yet Geography has become a central force in advancing environmental thinking at UBC. From the\u00a0Geogarden\u00a0just outside, to growing programs such as Urban Studies and connections with SCARP, the department plays\u00a0a major role\u00a0in shaping sustainable local planning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Student-led initiatives, like the GSA Sustainability Committee and its ongoing blog series, continue this legacy by promoting sustainability within the broader UBC community. These intertwined histories of growth, omission, and environmental\u00a0commitment highlight how campus spaces carry legacies that influence our present.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They remind us that learning on Musqueam land requires ongoing reflection, that sustainability must be rooted in place-based understanding, and that acknowledging the past is essential to building more respectful and responsible relationships with the land today.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geography Building\u00a0 UBC\u2019s Geography Building lies tucked away in the northwest corner of campus, one of the first buildings constructed here in 1925. Originally the Applied Sciences building, housing the multifaceted disciplines of Geology, Civil Engineering, Zoology, Forestry, and Botany, the building soon moved to support Canada\u2019s first geographic academic division, evolving from the Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102734,"featured_media":36,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hiddenhistories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}